Chapter 1 The Road to the Yellow Springs

The road to the Yellow Springs,
The final destination of the dead.
The living world.

Throughout history, countless scholars and poets, and countless folk legends, have fantasized and expanded upon the "Road to the Yellow Springs" countless times, giving rise to one tragic love story after another.

In novels and TV dramas, if a wife or husband dies and doesn't say "I'll wait for you on the Road to the Yellow Springs," it just doesn't feel right.

In reality,
If you really end up on the Road to the Yellow Springs,
No matter how desperately you loved each other, how moving your story was in life,
Once you step onto this road,
It all becomes,
Who, who, who are you?

Folk legends say that there is a Meng Po on Naihe Bridge (Bridge of Helplessness); drinking her soup allows you to forget your past life and go on to a new one.

Before Boss Zhou died, he had wondered if there really was a Naihe Bridge, Meng Po would be exhausted.

So many people die every day and have to drink the soup; Meng Po probably wouldn't be able to do anything else all year round except boil soup.

Now he understood that Naihe Bridge was a place name, but also the name of a power.

Meng Po might not be an old beggar with a cane and a broken bowl,

She might be a slender, flirtatious, beautiful woman with a rosy complexion and a smile that precedes her words.

That's right,
Having reached Meng Po's level,
How could she personally ladle soup for wandering ghosts?

On the Road to the Yellow Springs, the traffic is always heavy, making it a truly prime location for a golden business!

You never have to worry about customers passing by,
You never have to worry about customers going somewhere else.

It's just a pity that,
This road only goes as far as Naihe Bridge,
And all the facilities in between are operated by the Yin court (the underworld government).
The Yin court might not care about other forces making small moves in other corners,
But if they try to extend their reach to the Road to the Yellow Springs,
The Yin court will fight them to the death.

Fortunately,
Over the years,
No one has been so headstrong as to dare to fight the Yin court head-on.

It's like martial artists in wuxia novels, constantly saying, "Shame on those who work for the imperial court,"
But you never see any martial artists actually storming the palace to kill the emperor.

Once on the Road to the Yellow Springs, Lawyer An felt much more at ease.

Zhou Ze wasn't in a hurry to go up; instead, he looked at the pool beside the road.

The pool had accumulated water again. It really was a case of "wildfires never destroy it, and spring breezes bring it back to life." This pool was sometimes dry, sometimes full, sometimes with people, and sometimes empty.

Zhou Ze walked over and stood by the pool.

The water in the pool was clear; after all, there was no pollution here, nor could there be any.

He bent down,
Waited for a while.

Zhou Ze thought he wouldn't see anything,
That he was just revisiting an old place to reminisce.

But soon,
Ripples appeared on the surface of the water below him.

Zhou Ze's eyes narrowed, and the nails on his hands slowly grew longer.

"Boss, what's wrong?"

Lawyer An also came over.
He wanted to leave and return to the yang world as soon as possible, but his boss insisted on indulging in a bit of sentimental nostalgia.

Helpless, he could only wait.

Fortunately, the Road to the Yellow Springs was very long. Unless they were really unlucky enough to run into an official from the Yin court passing by, there wouldn't be any danger.

With that thought in mind,
Lawyer An looked around.

Phew,
Luckily, the old Daoist wasn't here.
If the old Daoist was here,
Lawyer An wouldn't dare to delay for even a moment.

A woman's face emerged from the pool,

No nose,
No mouth,
No ears,
No eyes.

It was a very pure face,
Not because it lacked anything,
But because of the feeling it gave, it seemed different from before.

Zhou Ze had never really understood what kind of change had occurred in the Faceless Woman. Apart from a few of those directly involved, not many people really knew what had happened that night in Rongcheng.

Her hair slowly spread out, drifting on the surface of the water, covering one side, giving off a strong artistic aura.

"Hey, these crafty ghosts by the Road to the Yellow Springs sure know how to appreciate the finer things."

Lawyer An wasn't surprised by this.
There were many strange things in hell. Even along the Road to the Yellow Springs, many things were born each year due to special circumstances.

This was unavoidable.
After all, the Road to the Yellow Springs was filled with the deathly silence of the dead's final journey, and many sinister things were born from it.

As long as they didn't cause trouble, the Yin court would turn a blind eye, treating them as free potted plants along the roadside.

Years ago, one of the Ten Kings of Hell liked to put on airs and be extravagant. Whenever he came out for inspection, his subordinates had to clean the road carefully and tidy up.

Well,
The yang world and the underworld were the same.
When the leader came to inspect,
I wouldn't dare to say anything else,
But a thorough cleaning was a must.

Lawyer An remembered that he wasn't an inspector back then, just a ghost soldier, and he and his colleagues had spent a long time cleaning up these things on both sides of the Road to the Yellow Springs. Hell didn't have anything like species protection.

Fortunately, that bigwig who liked to put on airs seemed to have run into some trouble later and went into secluded cultivation. The Road to the Yellow Springs hadn't been cleaned since then, and many "strange" things had grown along the roadside in the past few decades.

The Faceless Woman was looking at Zhou Ze,
And Zhou Ze was looking at the Faceless Woman.
There was no communication between them.

In fact,
Things had long changed.

When Zhou Ze first died and entered hell, he met the Faceless Woman. It could be said that for a long time, the Faceless Woman was almost a nightmare in Zhou Ze's mind.

Especially the time when the Faceless Woman turned into Doctor Lin and was with him in the car,
It was truly incredibly exciting!

But now,
He could face it calmly.

The Faceless Woman silently sank back into the water,
And the pool returned to calm.

Zhou Ze stood up, looked at Lawyer An, and said,
"Let's go back."

Let's go back,
Back to the yang world.

When he got back, he'd take a shower and then sleep with Yingying in his arms.

That was how life should be.

Just then, the sound of horses' hooves suddenly came from afar.

Lawyer An immediately pressed down on Zhou Ze's shoulder, and they both crouched down in the reed marsh beside the pool.

The souls on the Road to the Yellow Springs made way, and a group of ghost soldiers in black uniforms rode past.

"Ghost soldiers ride horses?"

Zhou Ze asked in surprise.

"What's wrong? Is there anything strange about that?"

"Shouldn't they be going 'biubiubiu'?"

"............" Lawyer An.

After the group had passed,
Lawyer An explained,
"This biubiubiu..."

Why am I imitating that?

"Hell is very big. If they were to biu around, no one could take it. Besides, these horses aren't horses from the yang world. They don't eat grass; they absorb ghost energy and can run continuously."

"Oh." Zhou Ze nodded. "But it still feels a bit low-class."

"This is just the mount of ordinary ghost soldiers in hell. Big shots have their own mounts.

Actually, it's not that bad.
I watched a TV series at the bookstore the other day.
The Great Emperors all arrived on horseback,
Shouting:
So-and-so Great Emperor, do you dare to dismount and fight me!"

"Is it that exaggerated?"

Confirming that no one else was coming,
And the Road to the Yellow Springs had returned to normal,
The two of them came out of the reed marsh and onto the Road to the Yellow Springs.

Looking at the densely packed, expressionless "living dead" nearby, Zhou Ze had a feeling of "I am the only one who is awake." In fact, once you entered here and got on the road, you would forget yourself here, without even needing to reach Naihe Bridge.

"Boss, have you been to hell before?" Lawyer An asked.

"Yeah."

Zhou Ze nodded.

"Then let's go back."

Lawyer An closed his eyes after speaking, and Zhou Ze saw his figure slowly rising.

Zhou Ze followed suit, imitating the feeling of floating up from the bottom of the sea in a dream.

Slowly,
His body also began to float.

Before he had risen far,
His body began to be enveloped in white light.

It was as if he had touched a layer of membrane.

His figure began to fade slowly, as if he was about to dissipate.

At this time,
Zhou Ze saw Lawyer An not far in front of him making hand seals.

"What are you doing?"

Zhou Ze shouted.

Lawyer An was stunned. He had just finished making the hand seals and seemed unsure how to answer this question. He asked in shock,

"Boss, you don't know the hand seals for guiding the soul back to the body?"

"I don't know."

"Then haven't you been here before?"

The expression on Lawyer An's face suddenly became rich.

"Yeah, I've been here. The first time, I ended up in Xu Le's body. The other times, I came in dreams."

"What!" Lawyer An gasped and immediately said, "Coming in dreams doesn't count as really being here. It's just that your dreams have some connection with hell, and it doesn't mean your soul has really come here. So, when you wake up, your consciousness also awakens.

No, no,
Now is not the time to talk about this.
Damn it,
I thought Lin Ke had taught you this. It's over, it's over, I was careless.

Boss, if you don't know the hand seals for guiding the soul back, you won't be able to accurately return to your own body when you leave hell. You might end up like the first time, wandering around and becoming a lonely ghost!"

"............" Zhou Ze.

It was that terrifying!

No wonder those evil ghosts who escaped would randomly choose a suitable body to possess, and some even possessed a rat, because they definitely didn't have their original bodies waiting for them when they left hell, nor did they have these hand seals, so they could only drift out randomly.

By that time, there would be very little room for choice, purely based on luck. Moreover, if you possessed someone with high yang energy, you might even be injured by the backlash.

"Boss, follow me. It's very easy to learn. Just follow my movements, and there's a chant. Just inject a little baleful energy when you make the seals."

Lawyer An shouted immediately.

"Phew............"

Zhou Ze breathed a sigh of relief.
He could still cram at the last minute,
So he wouldn't panic,
That's good, that's good.

Zhou Ze crossed his hands together,
Preparing to learn from Lawyer An's movements.

"Watch carefully, Boss."

"Yeah, hurry up."

"Okay, watch my movements, first like this..."

"Biu!"

Time was up.
Lawyer An's already faint body disappeared directly in the next moment.

He had returned to the yang world!

"............" Zhou Ze!